'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' PETER FRANKOPAN'This book is a revelation ... both original and important' MISHAL HUSAINA history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it.

The astonishing story of the ten million books that were smuggled across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

'Lively and fascinating. I loved it' David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in your Ear?'A history of the world in microcosm ... I highly recommend' Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God'A real detective story ... a tour de force' David Crystal, author of A Date with Language

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘A diligent historian and a superb writer’ THE TIMES A gripping new history of the making of England as a nation.